Newsletter

Deputies find $18,000 in clothing in traffic stop in south Georgia

Three Tampa residents stopped by a Camden County deputy have been sent on their way without most of the clothes they were carrying.

Three occupants of a 2008 Jeep stopped on Interstate 95 Sunday could not provide any verifiable information on how they came into the possession of $18,000 worth of clothes with the price tags attached, Deputy William Terrell said.

The Sheriff’s Office kept the clothes and other items and is trying to find the businesses where they originated, he said.

“It’s really hard to narrow it down. Some of its pretty pricey. Some of it’s from Victoria’s Secret,” Terrell said.

Because the vehicle was headed south, the Sheriff’s Office is working under the assumption the goods came from stores from Savannah north, Terrell said.

It began when Sgt. Cedric Brown of the Camden County Sheriff’s Office stopped the Jeep about 8:40 p.m. Sunday at the Harriet’s Bluff exit because of a possible window tint violation, Terrell said in a release.

The three occupants of the vehicle told Brown they had been to visit a friend in Savannah for a day to obtain clothing that they would eventually send to Cuba, Terrell said.

They could not provide the name of the friend nor an address, but the driver did provide permission for a search of his vehicle, the release said.

Brown found six bundles of clothing wrapped in plastic and a large plastic bag wrapped in duct tape and lined with aluminum foil, Terrell told the Times-Union.

Foil-lined bags are known to prevent detection by theft prevention devices in stores, he said.

The bundled clothing had department store tags and theft prevention devices still attached, and the Sheriff’s Office is trying to use bar codes to learn where they came from, Terrell said.

The three travelers told investigators they had obtained the clothing from an individual in Savannah but couldn’t provide any additional information, he said.

The clothing and other times were seized as evidence and turned over to the office’s Criminal Investigations Division, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The three Tampa residents, Alexander Mesa Del Sol, 45, Felix G. Ortiz, 35, and Alexi Milian, 38, were released with the vehicle.